Resistances, Immunities, and Vulnerabilities of Monsters in MM, Volo's, and MToF

[LudicSavant]

Damage Type Tiers
This list is based on the frequency of monster resistance and immunity throughout the MM, VGtM, and MToF. A total of 726 monsters were surveyed. If you’re wondering about vulnerabilities, these are actually quite rare (Fire has easily the most, at 13. Second place is Bludgeoning at 5. As I said, rare).

A+ (almost no resistance/immunity): Force, Radiant
A- (20-28 resistance/immunities): Psychic, Thunder, Magical BPS
B (51-55 resistance/immunities): Necrotic, Acid
C (111-150 resistance/immunities): Lightning, Cold, Fire
D (193-200 resistance/immunities): Nonmagical BPS
P (199 immunities, plus 15 resistances): Poison

Note: Monsters will not actually appear with equal frequency; this is to just try to get you a ballpark expectation.

Full Breakdown

Type	Res+Imm	Resistance	Immunity	Vulnerability	Random Notes
Acid	55	31	24	0	~42% Fiends (mostly Yugoloths) and Slaad.
Cold	142	113	29	4	~58% of the Resistances and Immunities are Fiends.
Fire	150	85	65	13	~56% of the Resistances and Immunities are Fiends.
Force	1	0	1	0	The sole immunity is the Helmed Horror.
Lightning	111	86	25	0	~50% of the Resistances and Immunities are Fiends.
Necrotic	51	28	23	0	69% of res/imms are undead. Most non-resistant undead are some variety of zombie/skeleton.
Psychic	21	3	18	1	Objects are immune, too. Bypasses Bear Totem Resistance.
Poison	214	15	199	0	Resistance/Immunity is also common amongst objects and PC abilities (spells/races/classes).
Radiant	6	5	1	2	The Aasimar PC race also gets Resistance.
Thunder	28	24	4	2	Earth Elementals are vulnerable.
Nonmagical Bludgeoning	193	155	38	5	Smashes skeletons and also ice mephits.
Nonmagical Slashing	194	154	40	0
Nonmagical Piercing	200	162	38	0
Magical Bludgeoning	20	20	0	5	5 of these are only resistant in dim/darkness. 3 trees. 1 demilich. All swarms but Rot Grub.
Magical Slashing	20	18	2	0	5 of these are only resistant in dim/darkness. 1 demilich. All swarms. 2 splitting oozes.
Magical Piercing	26	26	0	1	As Bludgeoning + a few more veggie creatures and exceptions. Rakshasas weak if Good.

[LudicSavant]

Bonus!

Spell list by damage type:

Acid
Acid Splash
Chaos Bolt
Chromatic Orb
Dragon's Breath
Elemental Bane
Elemental Weapon
Glyph of Warding
Hunger of Hadar
Illusory Dragon
Melf's Acid Arrow
Primal Savagery
Prismatic Spray
Prismatic Wall
Storm of Vengeance
Vitriolic Sphere

Bludgeoning
Alter Self
Animate Objects
Bigby's Hand
Bones of the Earth
Catapult
Control Water
Dust Devil
Earth Tremor
Earthquake
Erupting Earth
Evard's Black Tentacles
Ice Storm
Investiture of Wind
Maelstrom
Magic Stone
Maximilian's Earthen Grasp
Meld into Stone
Meteor Swarm
Storm of Vengeance
Storm Sphere
Tidal Wave
Transmute Rock
Tsunami
Whirlwind
Wind Wall
Wrath of Nature

Cold
Armor of Agathys
Chaos Bolt
Chromatic Orb
Cone of Cold
Dragon's Breath
Elemental Bane
Elemental Weapon
Fire Shield
Frostbite
Glyph of Warding
Hunger of Hadar
Ice Knife
Ice Storm
Illusory Dragon
Investiture of Ice
Otiluke's Freezing Sphere
Prismatic Spray
Prismatic Wall
Ray of Frost
Reality Break
Snilloc's Snowball Swarm
Storm of Vengeance
Wall of Ice

Fire
Aganazzar's Scorcher
Burning Hands
Chaos Bolt
Chromatic Orb
Create Bonfire
Delayed Blast Fireball
Dragon's Breath
Elemental Bane
Elemental Weapon
Fire Bolt
Fire Shield
Fire Storm
Fireball
Flame Arrows
Flame Blade
Flame Strike
Flaming Sphere
Glyph of Warding
Green-Flame Blade
Heat Metal
Hellish Rebuke
Illusory Dragon
Immolation
Incendiary Cloud
Investiture of Flame
Melf's Minute Meteors
Meteor Swarm
Prismatic Spray
Prismatic Wall
Produce Flame
Scorching Ray
Searing Smite
Wall of Fire
Web

Force
Banishing Smite
Bigby's Hand
Chaos Bolt
Dark Star
Dimension Door
Disintegrate
Eldritch Blast
Etherealness
Gravity Fissure
Gravity Sinkhole
Guardian of Nature
Jim's Magic Missile
Magic Missile
Magnify Gravity
Mordenkainen's Sword
Prismatic Wall
Pulse Wave
Ravenous Void
Reality Break
Spiritual Weapon
Steel Wind Strike
Sword Burst
Tenser's Transformation
Zephyr Strike

Lightning
Call Lightning
Chain Lightning
Chaos Bolt
Chromatic Orb
Dragon's Breath
Elemental Bane
Elemental Weapon
Glyph of Warding
Illusory Dragon
Lightning Arrow
Lightning Bolt
Lightning Lure
Prismatic Spray
Prismatic Wall
Shocking Grasp
Storm of Vengeance
Storm Sphere
Witch Bolt

Necrotic
Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting
Arms of Hadar
Bestow Curse
Blight
Chill Touch
Circle of Death
Destructive Wave
Enervation
Finger of Death
Forbiddance
Harm
Hex
Illusory Dragon
Inflict Wounds
Life Transference
Negative Energy Flood
Sapping Sting
Shadow of Moil
Spirit Guardians
Symbol
Time Ravage
Toll the Dead
Vampiric Touch
Wish

Piercing
Alter Self
Animate Objects
Cordon of Arrows
Ensnaring Strike
Hail of Thorns
Ice Knife
Insect Plague
Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound
Spike Growth
Thorn Whip
Wall of Thorns

Poison
Chaos Bolt
Chromatic Orb
Cloudkill
Dragon's Breath
Illusory Dragon
Infestation
Poison Spray
Prismatic Spray
Prismatic Wall
Ray of Sickness

Psychic
Chaos Bolt
Contact Other Plane
Dissonant Whispers
Dream
Feeblemind
Geas
Maddening Darkness
Mental Prison
Mind Blank
Mind Spike
Phantasmal Force
Phantasmal Killer
Psychic Scream
Reality Break
Shadow Blade
Staggering Smite
Synaptic Static
Vicious Mockery
Weird
Wrathful Smite

Radiant
Blinding Smite
Branding Smite
Crown of Stars
Crusader's Mantle
Dawn
Destructive Wave
Divine Favor
Flame Strike
Forbiddance
Guardian of Faith
Guiding Bolt
Holy Weapon
Moonbeam
Sacred Flame
Sickening Radiance
Spirit Guardians
Sunbeam
Sunburst
Wall of Light
Word of Radiance

Slashing
Alter Self
Animate Objects
Blade Barrier
Cloud of Daggers
Wall of Thorns
Wrath of Nature

Thunder
Booming Blade
Chaos Bolt
Chromatic Orb
Destructive Wave
Elemental Bane
Elemental Weapon
Glyph of Warding
Primordial Ward
Shatter
Storm of Vengeance
Thunder Step
Thunderclap
Thunderous Smite
Thunderwave

---

Bonus #2!

Someone asked me for a printable/pdf version of my breakdown of Resistances etc, so here it is!

Take this link, then pick File -> Download -> PDF Document. Then it should be good to print!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

So what you're saying is that a Hexblade/Paladin who combines Divine Smite and Eldritch Smite is going to deal full damage more consistently than anyone else?

What's the total number of monsters surveyed?

I don't see magical BPS on your damage types breakdown, is anything actually resistant/immune to those?

[elyktsorb]

I like how P is just for Poison jfc.

[LudicSavant]

I like how P is just for Poison jfc.

So what you're saying is that a Hexblade/Paladin who combines Divine Smite and Eldritch Smite is going to deal full damage more consistently than anyone else?

I suppose so.

What's the total number of monsters surveyed?

726 monsters were surveyed, I'll note that.

I don't see magical BPS on your damage types breakdown, is anything actually resistant/immune to those?

I should add that. Let's see...

Demilich is resistant to magic weapons.

Awakened Trees, Wood Woads, and Treants are resistant to all bludgeoning and piercing damage. Trees are very special, you see. Please save the trees or these uniquely powerful beings will stop using their superpowers to make our planet habitable.

Swarms are resistant to all BPS damage. I think there's 11 of them?

The Angry, The Hungry, The Lonely, The Lost, and The Wretched are resistant to all BPS damage when in dim light or darkness.

Edit: Added Magical BPS to the chart. Still need to double and triple-check the Magical BPS count to make extra sure I didn't miss any (it's slightly trickier since they tend to not be listed the same way).

[sandmote]

First, this is great.

It reminded me of the devil/demon distinction in 5e, where demons (generally) resist both fire and lightning while devils are immune to fire. Which fits the theme for both well; devils use lightning to hurt enemies faster while devils use fire because they care about keeping their allies standing.

I mention this because this got me to go compare yugoloths on this and find out they get the demon's resistances plus acid immunity on top. Very annoyed.

Awakened Trees, Wood Woads, and Treants are resistant to all bludgeoning and piercing damage. Trees are very special, you see.

I assumed this was "the weapon's material is too weak," resistances vs. "the weapon is improperly shaped," resistances.

I'm very curious; if you logged it, what are the other creatures that don't treat bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage equally?

Ice Mephits and Skeletons are vulnerable to bludgeoning.
Tree creatures are resistant to bludgeoning and piercing.
I know Xorns don't resist any form of bludgeoning but resist nonmagial/non adamantine attacks of the other two types.

What are some of the others?

[bendking]

Good stuff!

[LudicSavant]

First, this is great.

<3

I assumed this was "the weapon's material is too weak," resistances vs. "the weapon is improperly shaped," resistances.

I think so as well, but I wanted to make a tree joke.

I'm very curious; if you logged it, what are the other creatures that don't treat bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage equally?

Ice Mephits and Skeletons are vulnerable to bludgeoning.
Tree creatures are resistant to bludgeoning and piercing.
I know Xorns don't resist any form of bludgeoning but resist nonmagial/non adamantine attacks of the other two types.

What are some of the others?

Flameskulls, Vegepygmies and Thornies are resistant to piercing.
Swarm of Rot Grubs are NOT resistant to Bludgeoning, unlike other swarms.
Ochre Jellies and Black Puddings are resistant to slashing.
Warlock of the Fiend is resistant to Slashing from nonmagical weapons (basically, they're having it do a specific use of the Fiendlock's class feature).

[sandmote]

I think so as well, but I wanted to make a tree joke.

That is entirely fair.

Flameskulls, Vegepygmies and Thornies are resistant to piercing.
Swarm of Rot Grubs are NOT resistant to Bludgeoning, unlike other swarms.
Ochre Jellies and Black Puddings are resistant to slashing.

The oozes are immune (as part of their splitting up). Hadn't noticed the others; thanks. I'll try to remember the flameskull lets the barbarian shine over the wizard and rogue in particular.

[firelistener]

Excellent breakdown! This is great. I really like the random note for psychic how objects are immune. Makes complete sense, but I never considered the scenario in the first place. Now I can't shake the image of a bard attempting to bust down a door with Vicious Mockery

Interestingly, this makes me realize that Shadow Blade probably can't be used to cut objects either.

[AgenderArcee]

Nice resource. Who's the one guy with radiant immunity?

[McSkrag]

That time my warlock hexed and then eldritch blasted the helmed horror carving up the party.

[LudicSavant]

Nice resource. Who's the one guy with radiant immunity?

The Skulk from MToF.

[MaxWilson]

That is entirely fair.

The oozes are immune (as part of their splitting up). Hadn't noticed the others; thanks. I'll try to remember the flameskull lets the barbarian shine over the wizard and rogue in particular.

Except that Flameskulls also fly, so the Barbarian can't melee them, and their piercing resistance is awful for javelins and arrows. You have to either carry a sling, rely on warlock damage, use leveled spells like Shatter/Erupting Earth, or just accept that Flameskulls take a surprisingly long time to kill (especially with Blur and Shield).

The Skulk from MToF.

I love Skulks. Not only are they surprisingly dangerous for a CR 1/2 critter, they also have some of the only cool monster fluff in 5E.

[Chronos]

There are other kinds of "vulnerability". Like, trolls might not take extra damage from fire or acid, but they're still the damage types you want to use against them. I think this might end up making radiant slightly better, overall, than force, because several monsters (undead especially) have extra effects from radiant. It also ends up helping fire and acid (because a lot of things have troll-style regeneration).

[LudicSavant]

There are other kinds of "vulnerability". Like, trolls might not take extra damage from fire or acid, but they're still the damage types you want to use against them. I think this might end up making radiant slightly better, overall, than force, because several monsters (undead especially) have extra effects from radiant. It also ends up helping fire and acid (because a lot of things have troll-style regeneration).

Could be another worthwhile category to add. Like, maybe I could have something like "creatures that get wrecked by sunlight" (and note the effects that actually create real sunlight, like Dawn. Despite its name, Daylight isn't one of these spells).

Anyone wanna help compile a list of all these "extra effect" vulnerabilities that aren't actually a Vulnerability?

[Joe the Rat]

That time my warlock hexed and then eldritch blasted the helmed horror carving up the party.

I tend to reserve Helmed Horrors as Warlock-Bane encounters - if a powerful entity (say, a disgruntled Patron) needs to hunt down a Warlock, these guys show up.

Or when the party attacks the boots of every suit of plate armor they find with acid "just in case"

[RedMage125]

This is great, Ludic!

I love charts and math calculations and statistics, too.

Keep up the good work.

[T.G. Oskar]

It'd be interesting to see the Top 5 monsters with most resistances and immunities in the game. Maybe separate those that are relatively unique (i.e., don't add the Tarrasque because it's meant to be pretty much invincible) from those that'd be more likely to appear (say, a Pit Fiend or Balor, because while they're boss-level fights, there's a large bunch of them). I figure it wouldn't hurt the overall meta of the game, as DMs would know what monsters to keep on reserve for pesky metagamers, but even pesky metagamers might find themselves challenged by having to resort to certain fighting styles and not exploit many vulnerabilities.

That said - the info here is great. For one, it shows that Poison should have an Elemental Adept effect, since it makes that damage type almost entirely useless. I figure it's because the Poison damage often has the Poisoned condition rider, which is pretty nasty. Force has always been reliable, but to see Radiant, of all damage types, be the king (because, while Force is hardly resisted, very few are vulnerable, whereas Radiant is hard to resist AND many enemies are vulnerable in one way or another to it), is surprising. This kind of data would be useful to the developers to create new monsters and enemies that switch things around - enemies that are resistant to Force or Radiant, but that aren't resistant to Poison, for example.

[TigerT20]

Who's the poor fellow vulnerable to psychic? He must not like bards.

[Crucius]

This is a blessed resource! Thank you LudicSavant for pouring over all these monsters! Your contributions to the community are plentiful!

[Amechra]

I know it's a lot to ask, but I'd love to see an extension to this that looks at how likely it is for monsters to be resistant to pairs of damage types. Like, if I focus on spells that deal Acid and Fire damage, how often am I going to run into enemies that are resistant to both?

A more reasonable request would be some kind of breakdown by tiers. Are there level bands where, say, Fire is going to be more useful than Necrotic? Similarly, a way to break this down by creature types would be lovely.

---

I mean, this resource is really cool, and I shouldn't be demanding.

[Ghost Nappa]

I know it's a lot to ask, but I'd love to see an extension to this that looks at how likely it is for monsters to be resistant to pairs of damage types. Like, if I focus on spells that deal Acid and Fire damage, how often am I going to run into enemies that are resistant to both?

A more reasonable request would be some kind of breakdown by tiers. Are there level bands where, say, Fire is going to be more useful than Necrotic? Similarly, a way to break this down by creature types would be lovely.

---

I mean, this resource is really cool, and I shouldn't be demanding.

One of the sad realities of data exploration is that it only raises more questions.

However, it is a fantastic source of carpentry.

[LudicSavant]

I know it's a lot to ask, but I'd love to see an extension to this that looks at how likely it is for monsters to be resistant to pairs of damage types. Like, if I focus on spells that deal Acid and Fire damage, how often am I going to run into enemies that are resistant to both?

A more reasonable request would be some kind of breakdown by tiers. Are there level bands where, say, Fire is going to be more useful than Necrotic? Similarly, a way to break this down by creature types would be lovely.

---

I mean, this resource is really cool, and I shouldn't be demanding.

I could actually make a spreadsheet calculator do something like that using similar techniques to how I made the DPR calculator. The biggest obstacle would be inputting aaaaaaaall the monster variables into a spreadsheet. But if I had that I could make it do all sorts of fun stuff.

This is great, Ludic!

I love charts and math calculations and statistics, too.

Keep up the good work.

I <3 statistics!

One of the sad realities of data exploration is that it only raises more questions.

If you have only a candle dimly illuminating a 5' radius for light, for all you know you could be in a small room, just a few feet from the walls.

But when you cast Daylight and push back the borders of the darkness to a 60' radius, and you still can't see the walls, you realize that much more lies beyond the boundaries that you can see. There is no small closet to explore, but a vast cavern, or perhaps more, waiting to be explored, promising adventure.

As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it. The proliferation of those questions at the bounds of our understanding is how we know we're learning.

/me runs and hides

This is a blessed resource! Thank you LudicSavant for pouring over all these monsters! Your contributions to the community are plentiful!

Thanks!

Who's the poor fellow vulnerable to psychic? He must not like bards.

Flumphs. Poor flumphs.

[MaxWilson]

Who's the poor fellow vulnerable to psychic? He must not like bards.

Does anyone?

[TigerT20]

Does anyone?

I can name at least one rogue who does

[Skylivedk]

Am I the only not understanding why Earth Elemental is vulnerable to Thunder?

I mean...
A) Earth seems to give two body-processed foods about thunder IRL (same for sonic waves)

And more importantly:
B) have these guys never played Pokémon?

[Greywander]

Am I the only not understanding why Earth Elemental is vulnerable to Thunder?

I mean...
A) Earth seems to give two body-processed foods about thunder IRL (same for sonic waves)

And more importantly:
B) have these guys never played Pokémon?

A while back, I created a template for a sort-of undead that was infused with elemental earth. I decided that they were blind and unable to speak, but they had excellent hearing. To the tune of tremorsense out to 120 feet. They're very sensitive to vibrations. I decided to give them thunder vulnerability, too, so maybe the logic was the same here. Imagine a sound so loud that it causes you physical pain, and now imagine that your sense of hearing is orders of magnitude above normal humans.

For the Pokemon analogy, that would probably be lightning damage, not thunder. Sonic-type attacks in Pokemon seem to be Normal type, which Ground is not resistant to (though Rock is). At least, it was the last time I played Pokemon, which hasn't been for a while.

[Dr. Cliché]

Kudos for taking the time to do this.

I think the one that surprised me was the number of monsters with resistance or immunity to Lightning damage. I'd thought it was one of the less-resisted elements (around the same as Acid).

[Chronos]

I was about to object that Haley likes a bard, not bards. But then I remembered that her best friend in the Thieves' Guild is also a bard, so OK.

And Earth Elementals are vulnerable to thunder because they're hard and partly crystalline. Much easier to Shatter a rock than to Shatter a lump of meat.